Violin-bow



(N0 Model.)

A. W. WHITE.

VIOLIN BOW. No. 358,315. Patented Feb. 22', 1887.

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WITNESS-L5 INVENT &' @APQW 3}: iz L UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ASA IV. WHITE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

VIOLIN-BOW.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 358,315, dated February22, 1887.

Application filed December 2'7, 1886. Serial No. 222,594.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ASA IV. 'WHITE, of Boston, in the county of Suffolkand State of Massachusetts, a citizen of the United States, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Violin-Bows, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, inexplaining its nature.

It is well known that the great improved violin-bow introduced about acentury ago, and known as the Tourte bow, is still the standard ofexcellence; but it has defects. It is made of one piece of wood, and isoriginally straight, and has its hollow-backed curvature made by heatingand bending by one of the usual bent-wood processes. It is stillsomewhat flexible laterally, particularly when the touch is near thehead, and this flexibility at times interferes with the certainty,uniformity, and continuity of the tones. the weight of the bow, toobtain g'reaterlateral stiffness, would introduce a new trouble for theplayer.

My invention has for its object to cure this defect of the bow withoutincrease of weight.

It consists in making a blank forthe bow of two or more pieces gluedtogether vertically and longitudinally, and then cutting this blank tothe ultimate shape of the bow.

In preparing the wood for this how, I do not take planks or joists, butlogs. \Vhen the bow is of two pieces only, I out these logs endwise onlines which radiate from the center to the circumference of the log, soas to make strips which are of wedgeshaped or nearly wedgeshapedcross-section, and'then unite two of these strips, which should be takenfrom different parts of the log not adjacent in their natural position,or if adjacent naturally, then with their grains reversed. These arefirst finished to true surfaces and then glued and clamped; but I preferto use more than two pieces. In such case a log is wholly or partlydivided into thin planks,-and another or part of the same log is dividedby the radial cuts, before described, and one of thethin planks is facedon each side by a strip of wedge-shaped cross-section and all glued andclamped together.

An increase of- (No model.)

Of course a greater number of pieces than three may be used; but athree-piece b0 w seems to answer every purpose and embody all theadvantages that a four or five piece bow would do, although a bowmade onthis plan of more than three pieces would embody the invention. Afterthe composite blank is fixed and set I saw or cut it into proper shape,as the Tourte bow is bent into, and finish it as if it were all of onenatural piece.

The accompanying drawings invention.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a bow with its head a, its frog 1), andits horse-hair c, and its arc rod A. Fig. 2 is a similar elevation ofthe arc rod A and head a of the bow. Fig. 3 is a. plan of the parts of abow shown in elevation in Fig. 2, but made in my improved plan of threepieces, (I e f. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the arc rod and head of a,Tourte bow before it is bent to the shape of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is aperspective of part of a blank for a three-piece bow of my improvedsort. Fig. 6 is a perspective of part of a blank for a two-piece bow. Inthese the curvature is represented as already sawed. Figs. 7, 8, and 9show-different ways of cutting a log into sections for use in thismanufacture.

' The plankwise cuts are represented at h. The pieces cut on linesradiating from the center are marked 9.

The workman will of course work his wood to as great advantage as hecan. The heraldic, ordinary the gyron, well describes the section of thewood, that. being a wedge which terminates in the center of a field, andthe fig- 1'llustrate the ure of cutting would be described properly asfrom the heart of the log, united together side the wood of its severalpieces lying naturally, IO by side lengthwise along thin adjacent sides,made of two or more pieces of wood of gyronsubstantially as described.formed cross-section united lengthwise side by 3. The composite blankfor a violin-bow, side, substantially as and for the purpose de- 5composed of two longitudinal pieces of wood scribed.

of gyron-formed cross-section,which pieces are ASA. W. WHITE. united toeach other along two adjacent sides, Witnesses: substantially asdescribed. F. F. RAYMOND, 2d,

4-. The shaped vio1in-bow with its grain of J M. DOLAN.

